Ferrovial sells key BAA stake to Qatar

Doha, August 18, 2012

Spanish infrastructure firm Ferrovial said it has sold part of its stake in British airport operator BAA to Qatar to finance its bid to push further into faster growing markets such as Latin America.

Ferrovial sold a 10.6 per cent stake in FGP Topco, the holding company that owns BAA - which runs London's Heathrow airport - for 607 million euros ($748 million) to Qatar Holding, the finance arm of the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund.

Analysts said Ferrovial, whose investment in BAA has been dented by UK regulators' crackdown over its dominant position, achieved a good price for its stake given economic conditions and was likely to use the proceeds to invest abroad. The company is bidding for airports in Brazil and Puerto Rico.

'It's 3pc below the price they achieved in 2011,' said RBC Capital analyst Olivia Peters, referring to Ferrovial's sale of 5.88pc of BAA to Alinda Capital Partners for 325m euros in October 2011.

'It implies 13.7 times Editda, and if you strip out Edinburgh it's more like 13.9 times.'

It had planned to keep all of the British firm's airports and make them more efficient by outsourcing services, but BAA was forced by the UK regulator to sell Gatwick - Britain's second busiest airport behind London Heathrow - for which it got £1.5bn in 2009.

It was also made to sell Edinburgh airport, which was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners for £807 million in April this year.

In England, BAA currently owns Southampton and Stansted, which it is also being forced to sell, as well as Glasgow and Aberdeen airports in Scotland.

BAA's other shareholders, Britannia Airport Partners and GIC, also sold stakes to Qatar Holding, which as a consequence now holds a 20pc stake in the British operator.-Reuters